In the 20th century, the German naval forces were armed with two Scharnhorst cruisers. They participated in the First and Second World Wars. Both were named after the reformer of the Prussian army, the famous General Gerhard von Scharnhorst, who lived at the turn of the 18th-19th centuries. In this article we will talk about these ships, the history of their creation, service and death.
In the East Asian Cruising Squadron
The first cruiser Scharnhorst was laid down at the very beginning of 1905, a year later it was launched. In October 1907, he joined the German fleet.
The armored cruiser Scharnhorst was considered the flagship of the East Asian squadron. In its composition, he took part in the battle of Coronel in November 1914. This is a battle between German and British cruisers, which took place off the coast of Chile. It ended with the victory of Germany. The cruiser Scharnhorst destroyed the English ship Good Hope.
Within a month, the ship died along with the entire crew on board in the battle of the Falkland Islands. On it were 860 people. Nobody managed to survive.
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In 1935 another cruiser Scharnhorst was laid down. Its construction was carried out at the shipyards in Wilhelmshaven. The ship was commissioned in January 1939.
The history of the creation of the cruiser "Scharnhorst" was full. After the first tests, the ship had to be modernized. A new mainmast was installed on it, which was located much closer to the stern. The straight stem has been replaced by the so-called Atlantic. All this was supposed to improve the seaworthiness of the vessel.
However, German designers soon had to admit that the Scharnhorst model of the cruiser was extremely unsuccessful. Initially, the ship experienced problems with flooding the bow, which finally could not be resolved.
Specifications
Photo cruiser "Scharnhorst" amazed many military experts of that time. Its total displacement reached almost 39 thousand tons. The total length was more than 235 meters and a width of 30 meters. It was a powerful armored ship with three engines and a capacity of 161 thousand horsepower.
In addition to the description of the cruiser Scharnhorst, it should be noted that the ship could reach speeds of up to 57 kilometers per hour. The crew was almost two thousand people, of which 60 were officers.
In service were artillery, anti-aircraft stops, as well as mine-torpedo tubes.
At the beginning of the war
The first combat operation of the battle cruiser Scharnhorst was to patrol the passage between the Faroe Islands and Iceland. The ship was sent on this mission in November 1939.
The patrols at this location were carried out by the cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau. First, they sank the English armed ship they met. And in the spring of 1940 they provided the invasion of the Nazi troops in Norway. On April 9, off the coast of this Scandinavian country, cruisers met with the English ship Rinaun, which managed to disable one of the towers on the Gneisenau. “Scharnhorst” while greatly affected by the elements, but the Germans still managed to break away from the British ship, set off in pursuit.
Operation Juneau
In June, Scharnhorst and Gneisenau participated in Operation Juneau in the Norwegian Sea. This was the first and only battle of the battleships against the aircraft carrier in the history of the world fleet. German ships won by sending the British aircraft carrier Glories to the bottom. The destroyers Ardent and Akasta, which made up his escort, were also destroyed.
During the battle, 50 people were killed as a result of a torpedo strike from the Akasta aboard the Scharnhorst, and the left propeller shaft was damaged. The ship began to flood, because of this, it was soon necessary to turn off the middle car.
A few days later, when the Scharnhorst was in the harbor, it was raided by British dive bombers, who rose from the board of the aircraft carrier Ark Royal. However, the operation was a failure. Of the 15 aircraft, the Germans shot down 8. Of all the bombs dropped, only one reached the target, but it did not explode.
In December, two German cruisers attempted to break through the blockade of the British in order to enter the North Atlantic, but were forced to return due to a breakdown on the Gneisenau.
Raid to the Atlantic
In early 1941, the Scharnhorst and Gneisenau were in the Atlantic Ocean under the command of Admiral Gunter Lutens. Passing through the Danish Strait, we reached the south of Greenland. There they tried to attack the English convoy, but the attempt failed because of the British battleship Ramilles, who came to the rescue.
In February, German battleships sank four Allied merchant ships in the Newfoundland area. It is worth noting that they were in conditions of weak air patrol, so it was almost impossible to avoid clashes with the British Royal Navy.
In March, they attacked another convoy, but again retreated. This time with the appearance of the cruiser Malaya. An assault on an convoy of allied tankers was later committed. A total of 13 ships were sunk, of which four were destroyed by the Scharnhorst.
This was his last battle before returning to the port of Brest. During this campaign, the cruiser managed to sink 8 enemy ships.
Operation Cerberus
Remaining in Brest, he was regularly subjected to air raids. As a result, it was decided to relocate to the port of La Rochelle. Resistance agents and aerial reconnaissance of the Allies were warned of the departure of the cruiser from the port. However, they were sure that he was sent to another raid.
In order to prevent Scharnhorst from entering the open sea, 15 heavy bombers of the Royal Air Force flew into the air. They dealt a powerful blow to the ship, forcing him to return to the port for repairs. Damage caused by British aircraft, coupled with problems due to the cooling of the boilers, delayed the ship in port until the end of 1941. Only then was it decided to send him back with Germany to Gneisenau and Prince Eugen.
Since breaking through the North Atlantic was very risky, three vessels, accompanied by auxiliary vessels and several dozen minesweepers, decided to sail across the English Channel.
An important place in the history of the cruiser Scharnhorst is occupied by the operation Cerberus. This is the name this breakthrough received. The British were not ready for such unexpected and decisive actions. The coast guard failed to stop the breakthrough, and jamming the radars did not allow an air attack to be launched.
At the same time, German cruisers still got damaged. Gneisenau was blown up in one mine, and Scharnhorst in two.
At the docks for repair
Another repair left the ship on the docks until March 1942. After that, he went to Norway to meet with the battleship Tirpitz, as well as several other German ships that were planning an attack on the Arctic convoys en route to the Soviet Union.
Several months were devoted to acclimatization and crew training. The result was an active bombardment of Spitsbergen, in which participated and “Tirpitz”.
The death of the cruiser
On Christmas Day 1943, the Scharnhorst, along with several other German destroyers, advanced into the sea under the command of Rear Admiral Erich Bay with the aim of attacking the northern convoys.
The British command had prepared in advance for this campaign, since the cryptography deciphered the orders.
At first, Bay was unable to detect the convoy due to difficult weather conditions. Then he sent destroyers south to search for them. “Scharnhorst” was left alone. Two hours after that, he came across the cruiser Norfolk, Belfast and Sheffield. The British discovered a German ship earlier using radars. Having approached, they opened fire on him, inflicting minor damage. The bow radar station was destroyed, which, presumably, caused further problems.
"Scharnhorst", considering the main purpose of transport convoy, broke away from the British cruisers, but when you try to break through again was overtaken again. Now, in return fire, he damaged the Norfolk. Having suffered a second failure, Bay decided to complete the operation and return. By that time, the British battleship Duke of York was already between Norway and Scharnhorst. The Germans did not suspect this, as they turned off the stern radar, not trusting him and fearing to betray themselves.
Around 16:50, the “Duke of York” opened fire from a short distance at the cruiser, which was previously lit by special shells. “Scharnhorst” almost immediately lost two towers, but due to the high speed was able to break away from the pursuit. An hour later, problems arose with the boilers of the ship. After that, the speed of the battleship dropped sharply, due to operational repairs it was possible to increase, but not significantly. It is believed that at that moment his fate was already decided.
Due to the effect of surprise, “Duke of York” escaped with minimal damage, but “Scharnhorst”, despite the heavy booking, lost the course and most of the artillery. For the destroyers, he was a good target. At 19:45, the ship went under water. Soon after his dive, powerful explosions were heard. Of the crew in 1968, 36 sailors remained alive. All officers died.
On the same day, late at night, British Admiral Bruce Frazer declared that the battle ended in victory for them, but he wished everyone to command as valiantly as they did today with Scharnhorst officers when fighting a stronger opponent.
Ship detection
In 2000, the ship was discovered 130 kilometers northeast of Cape Nordkapp. The Norwegian naval forces photographed it at a depth of about three hundred meters.
The pictures show that the cruiser lies upward with the keel. Its bow was destroyed by an explosion of ammunition in the cellars almost to the bridge itself. The aft part is also almost completely absent.
Since 1939, the ship was commanded by four commanders. These were the first-rank captains Otto Ziliaks, Kurt Hoffmann, Friedrich Huffmeyer and Fritz Hinze. The latter died in a battle at the North Cape.